Loyalty
by btvs
Summary: One Shot based on the season 3 spoilers. Set at dinner, Tom speaks out for what he believes in.


_**Based on spoilers from the TCAS with actual dialogue**_

Sybil felt like scales out of balance, a game of tug of war playing out in front of her. One minute she was on one side, the next her loyalties were shifted. She'd spent the journey to Downton giving her husband a briefing of aristocratic life much to his dismay, and feared the worse when the dinner gong had sounded.

This was not going to be easy...

"Why don't they just murder the entire population and then you won't hear a squeak out of any of them." Oh god Tom, please stop, stop making this harder for me, her headache getting worse by the minute.

"Is there any way to shut him up?" She heard her grandmother enquire. How could they be so harsh, so presumptuous. Her loyalties once again shifting, so much so that she was feeling dizzy.

"If I knew how to control him he wouldn't be here in the first place." Her father announced, a hint of dismissal in his tone. Of all people, he had been least welcoming which hadn't been a surprise.

Sybil placed her hand in Tom's, trying to calm him down. At their home in Ireland, which now seemed a distant dream, the slightest touch would calm him down; soothe his pain, but here...

"Please Tom; we don't need to wear everyone out." She whispered. Her headache now rooted in the centre of her forehead and deepening.

"What's the matter? Am I not being polite?" He replied with a smirk, which transformed to a frown when he witnessed the reaction it had caused in his wife. She looked defeated, close to tears and rose from her chair. Tom stood to follow but she couldn't look at him, instead she fled the room, leaving him to encounter the slander and taunts of the dinner guests.

"I don't know why you're all getting so hot under the collar he's only a grubby little chauffer chap…." "Trouble in Paradise Mr Branson..."

-x-

As he retreated to the library, the only place he felt at home in the prison that was Downton, he traced his fingers over the book ledger encompassing his wife's delicate handwriting. He wanted silence; chance to retain his calm but sharp voices from outside threatened to spoil his peaceful state.

_"God, Matthew, how can you be so disappointing?" he heard his sister in law threaten. "If we can disagree with something as fundamental as this, shouldn't we just back away now?"_

_He heard one door slam and another a little closer open. Matthew Crawley entering the library, seemingly searching for the same peace an outsider needed._

_"Oh, Branson...sorry Tom, I didn't mean to..." He corrected himself_

_"Its okay" Tom replied, raising his hand to silence Matthew "It took Sybil about a day or two to get used to it" he laughed softly. "Trouble with the wife aswell?" he enquired, comforted by the common bond the men shared._

_"How did you guess?" Matthew confirmed with a slight chuckle which then turned serious "Sometimes I wonder if it's worth all the trouble, I truly love Mary but sometimes..."_

_Tom stepped over to Matthew, put his hand on his shoulder in a gesture of support and replied with all sincerity _"You won't be happy with anyone else while Lady Mary walks the earth, believe me, I know"

This caught Matthew's attention "So, you're not worried, fighting with Sybil?"

Tom shook his head where a smile played on his lips "Not at all, you should have seen us in Ireland, fought all the time, but it's one of the things I love most about her. Her ability to stand up for what she believes in, her passion. It's what I saw in her before anything else, what made me wait so long, because I knew she was the one to make me happy, the only one I'd ever need...

His speech stunted by a soft creak at the door, a white glove hovering over the handle. Tom moved forward to open the door that revealed his wife.

Nothing had to be said, no apologizes, only a smile mirrored in each other and his hand placed protectively around his wife.

"How long have you been standing there?" he enquired.

"Long enough to remind myself why I married you" she replied with a soft kiss to his forehead.

As they walked towards the stairs Tom looked back at Matthew with a reassuring grin, it _was_ possible to capture an outspoken Crawley sister after all.

As they made their way up the large staircase Matthew heard them discussing their future:

"How's our boy treating you?" The father to be asked.

"Why are you so convinced it's a boy, we won't know for a while yet" Sybil argued.

" ...Because it would really annoy you're father if it was"

**Hope you enjoy, and as a Brit, can I just say, hope you enjoy the Olympics from Friday, so excited to have everyone watching my country!**


End file.
